I’d like to speak about a very popular topic and that is, offering our bodies as a sacrifice. And, in particular, I’m going to focus on the Mass as a sacrifice because I think it’s very closely connected to what Paul is talking about.

First of all, what is it? What are we talking about when we speak of the Mass as a sacrifice, because for us in the 21^st century, this is very strange. But, in ancient times, worship and sacrifice were basically 2 different ways of saying the same thing. Back then, the idea of worship without a sacrifice just wasn’t there, and that’s true of all ancient religions, not just Judaism.

So, let’s look at sacrifice. First, the term sacrifice means “to make sacred or holy” and the Jewish meaning behind “Holy” is to “set apart” for God. So, a sacrifice is something set apart for God.

There were different kinds of sacrifices. There was a Thanksgiving sacrifice, an atonement sacrifice which is basically a sin offering, there was a communion sacrifice in which a person would be in communion with God. And there were others as well. The sacrifice usually involved killing an animal, but not always. It could be from the fruit of the land, like for example Melchizedek, the first priest in the Bible, offered a Thanksgiving sacrifice of bread and wine.

Now one question is – why would God want sacrifices, especially animal sacrifices as part of worship? Does He get hungry up there in heaven? Of course not, it’s not for Him, it’s for us. A sacrifice is a human way for us to show our love for God – that God is our All and we trust Him in everything. We see this on a human level. If we want to show love to someone – maybe we want to thank the person for something, or, maybe we’ve done something offensive, and we want to make amends, it would be very natural for us to give the person a gift of some kind. Well, in ancient times, farm products like animals and wheat were very valuable gifts.

So, this was the idea. A sacrifice was meant to be a sign of the person’s love for God. See, God has everything. Everything in creation is His, except for 1 thing – our hearts. Our hearts are ours to give or not give. He leaves us free. Obviously He very much wants us to give Him our heart; but, He will not force us. That was the idea behind sacrifice. It was a way to give our heart to God. When the OT prophets condemned the Israelites for their sacrifices, they weren’t condemning sacrifices per se, they were condemning their hypocrisy, that is, not giving from their heart.

All these OT sacrifices prepared the way for the one definitive sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This ONE sacrifice is a sin offering, thanksgiving, communion, and all the others and they were all fulfilled perfectly in this ONE sacrifice.

But, we need to understand what Scripture means by the One sacrifice. It could mean once and done, or, it could mean once and for all. The Church has always understood it to mean the latter. It’s eternal. It’s kind of like the internet. The internet is always on, it’s always there, but, we only connect to it on certain occasions (at least I hope that’s true), but, it’s always there. The sacrifice of Jesus is eternal, it’s always there, and in the Mass we connect to it.

But, the Mass doesn’t just connect us to the sacrifice of Jesus. He invites us to join with Him. Near the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the priest will say, “Lift up your hearts”, and we respond “We have lifted them up to the Lord”. Lifting up is a sign that something is offered in sacrifice. The priest lifts up bread and wine. Jesus was lifted up. What we are saying in this simple little prayer is that we are offering ourselves, we are presenting ourselves as a sacrifice.

Just before this the priest says “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God…”. What is our sacrifice, what can we offer? Here is what the Catechism says:

In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of His body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with His total offering, and so acquire a new value. CCC 1368.

This has the potential to completely change how we look at the Mass and at ourselves and even our life because what this is saying is that we can offer everything in our life and unite it to the sacrifice of Christ. And what has really been helpful to me is to realize that we don’t have to do special works. I used to think that all of my normal daily activities is just stuff and that if I wanted to offer something to God I had to do something special; but, that’s not true. Everything we experience can be offered to God; the key is that we embrace it for God. So, if we’re suffering, we say Lord I willingly choose to accept this suffering for you and for souls. That’s what Joni has been doing with her sufferings. Same with struggles we have at work or school. This has really helped me. I work with a guy, who is a good guy, very competent; but, he’s difficult. So, almost every time now, when I get something from him, ‘Lord, for love of you, I give my best to work with him and love him.’ If I have to give a presentation to some big-wigs, ‘Lord, for love of you.’ And it’s not just the sufferings and struggles, we can embrace the joyful moments as well in thanksgiving to Him. Everything we experience we can embrace for love of Jesus. Then, we bring all this to Mass where Jesus accepts our offerings, unites them with his perfect offering and presents them to the Father for love of Him and the good of souls. Our life can take on a certain rhythm of love where everything we say and do is for love of Him and then at Mass we experience our oneness with Him, and in so doing He becomes our life! We live no longer for ourselves but for Him!

So, brothers and sisters, as we prepare to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, when we say ‘we lift them up to the Lord’, let us say it from the heart. Let us accept His call to join Him in His sacrifice, so that just as the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, we too might become other Christs and transform our world. God bless you all.